


Waiting for Dawn

by SunlitStone



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Attolia POV, Blindfolded Character, F/M, Gen, Huddling For Warmth, Post-The King of Attolia, Vulnerability, because Costis is there too, but like...mostly in a platonic way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 06:35:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21931561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunlitStone/pseuds/SunlitStone
Summary: Swept away from their ship by the ocean, Attolia, Eugenides, and Costis stay in a smuggler's cave overnight to survive.
Relationships: Attolia | Irene & Costis Ormentiedes, Attolia | Irene/Eugenides, Eugenides & Costis Ormentiedes, pre-Attolia/Costis/Eugenides if you squint
Comments: 17
Kudos: 77
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Waiting for Dawn

**Author's Note:**

  * For [millepertuis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/millepertuis/gifts).



> Thanks very much to ambyr for a very last-minute beta :)

By the time Eugenides's lieutenant had a fire going by the entrance of the cave, Attolia was shivering uncontrollably. Even in Attolia, the night was not warm in late autumn, and her clothes, soaked from the fall into the ocean, leached every trace of warmth from her. She moved as close as she could to the fire, and thought about what they were going to do next.

Eugenides had been going through the chests at the back of the cave. Now he came up next to her, carrying a bag with what looked like rations in it. "I thought I was done with dried beef," he said to both of them, though his guard was still staring out of the entrance to the cave. He sighed and handed her a piece. "Well, at least we won't starve. Costis," he called. His guard turned around. Attolia thought she could see worry in his face, and knew also that it was as much for her and the king as for himself. She began to work at her dried beef, though it was unpleasantly salty after the ocean, and the shivering made it difficult to tear a piece off.

Eugenides tossed him another piece of dried beef, which the guard caught easily. "Eat that. There's some drinking vessels in the chests, and a stream running just around the curve on the left to the back of the cave." He nodded to indicate the direction. "Fill them and bring them by the fire, would you? We don't want to be drinking cold water."

Costis nodded acquiescence and went off to bring them water. Eugenides turned to her, and there was a concern in his eyes that almost startled her. "Do you remember when I told you about avoiding the cold in Eddis?"

At first she began to smile, though she could not imagine why he was bringing up that flirtation now. Then understanding hit her, and her face slid into a smooth distance she rarely used these days with Eugenides.

"No," she said.

"If we don't, My Queen, we might die. We'll certainly hurt ourselves." There was nothing of his usual levity in his voice, but there was something else, something she'd not heard before. "They've got blankets. I can tear a strip off to blindfold Costis."

"Maybe I want to blindfold _you_."

He smiled, though it seemed like an effort. "Oh, we can do that too if you like."

Her dignity was her armour. More than that, it was her weapon, one of the ways she had stayed alive and in power those long years. She would rather skin herself alive then disarm herself so. But at that thought, she had to close her eyes for a long moment, to stop them from darting down to the stump where her husband's right hand had once been.

She reached out to cup his face with her hand. He looked at her unflinching, though he trembled against her touch. But then she looked more carefully. He was not trembling, she realized, he was shivering, and if it was not as badly as she was, it was still enough to affect his voice.

She remembered opening the solarium to see him lying on the floor, surrounded by shattered glass. She dropped her hand. "Costis will go in first, and you will blindfold him," she told him. "And you will be in the middle."

He smiled up at her in relief, then snorted. "You know that it's your fault I have to go to such lengths to have a mistress."

She snorted in her turn. "My threat still stands."

He sighed dramatically. "You never let me have any fun," he accused. "Come on, help me with the blankets."

She stayed by the fire instead and watched him head to the back of the cave, though she half-suspected that had been his intention in issuing the order. He carried the blankets into a great bundle by the fire, spreading them out into multiple smaller bundles by her feet. There were three of them, made of wool, each big enough to wrap around Eugenides's lieutenant three times with some left over. They'd be scratchy, but at least they'd be warm, she supposed.

Her husband lay two on top of each other, leaving the third one aside. "That one to go on top of us," he explained at her glance. "You lose more heat to the ground than to the air." She had not known that. But then, she had never been a thief.

"Go see what's holding Costis," she instructed him, for surely the guard should have been back with at least one drinking vessel by now. Unless he had divined at least part of Eugenides's intention, and was giving them privacy deliberately; unhappy though the thought made her, she had to admit that her husband's favourite lieutenant was by now unusually skilled at marking his moods. Eugenides trotted off, aiming an irreverent grin at her that she did not at that moment have the heart to quash.

They didn't return instantly, and she stared at the fire for a time. She could not believe she was doing this. But by now her teeth were chattering beyond her ability to control them, and if Attolia had ever lied to herself, it was not about the necessity of doing difficult things. "Where there's life," she said to herself, quietly and around the shivering, "there's hope." She worked some more on her beef.

When they returned, Eugenides was carrying two of the vessels under his left arm, and his guard was managing another three. "That's all there is," Eugenides said in response to her questioning look. "But it should be enough to get us through the night, I think. Even with the beef." He placed one of his against the wall of the cave, so it would not fall over, and began to bury the other a little in the sand nearer to the fire, so that it would stay upright and receive heat. This time she did help him.

By the time they'd finished two, the guard was on his third, and moving very slowly. She sighed. "My husband has told you what is necessary," she said.

He flinched, but managed to look up to meet her gaze. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"You don't think he would have done this without my agreement."

There was a pause, but then he shook his head. "No, Your Majesty."

"Then I do not see why you delay."

He looked deeply unhappy. "No, Your Majesty," he said, and finished quickly with his third vessel. They were buried about equidistantly from each other in a crescent moon shape this side of the fire; someone would have to crawl a few feet to bring them back to the blankets once they'd warmed up. She grimaced a little at the thought.

Costis was standing by the blankets now, looking at her uncertainly. She frowned at him. "Yes?"

"Could you...would you mind turning away, Your Majesty?"

She did so without further comment, though she caught a flash of amusement in her husband's eyes. It had not occurred to her, she had to admit, that the guard might have his own dignity, and not want to be seen naked by a woman, or by his Queen.

"Come now, Costis, I know you're unhappy but that's no excuse to be sloppy." Eugenides's voice was irritatingly cheerful. "Leave your clothes spread out by the fire. That way they'll be nice and dry tomorrow morning." She heard wet sounds as the guard removed his clothes, followed by the sound of cloth as he slid under the blankets and Eugenides, presumably, tucked him in. She had to swallow a smile at the image that thought produced, and admitted to herself that it would be nice to take off her clothes. They had not yet stopped dripping water. Another set of sounds: the sound of a blade through cloth, presumably Eugenides cutting a blindfold for his guard, and a quieter murmur. "It's all right, Costis. I'll protect you." The tone was mocking, but she suspected him of a greater sincerity, and rather thought his lieutenant did too.

"You can look now," he told her cheerfully. She turned around; Costis was safely under the blankets, and a strip of the thick wool had been folded in half and tied around his head. He would not see through it. She felt relief, though she did not admit it to Eugenides.

"Your turn, husband," she told him. He raised an eyebrow at her, but nodded.

"You know if you wanted me to strip for you you only had to ask," he told her as he carefully removed his hook and laid it down within grabbing distance from the blanket. "You didn't have to go to all this trouble."

"Yes," she said, watching as he removed his shirt, "but it's more fun this way."

Eugenides grinned at her. Costis, meanwhile, cleared his throat uncomfortably, and it occurred to her a little belatedly that there might be more than one reason he was uncomfortable being naked next to his king and queen, who were not yet six months married.

"Come on, cuddle up next to me," he told his guard as he slid under the blankets. "I'm not a delicate maiden." The guard flushed in deep unhappiness, but he did as he was told, turning onto his side and pressing himself against his king.

Eugenides did seem to relax a little into the guard's warmth, and that in turn eased something in Attolia. They would not die here, however undignified the method of their survival. Eugenides would live on, and so would she, and so would their guard. The rest was meaningless in comparison.

It was her turn now, and she removed her earrings, then her clothes, then her boots, following Eugenides's example and laying them out near the fire. Then she knelt beside her husband so that he could remove her necklace from her and unbraid the rubies from her hair, something he could manage these days even one-handed. His hand was warm against her neck, and she spared a moment to wish that they were back in her bedroom in the palace. Then she took the rubies and necklace and laid them out near the fire, did the best she could to brush any remaining water off her skin and squeeze it out of her hair, and slid in next to Eugenides.

It was an immense and immediate relief. She was flush against Eugenides, her head pillowed on his right arm and her breasts against his chest. His head, in turn, was resting on Costis, the guard's arm just above her own, and his back against Costis's chest. Cocooned like this, finally able to keep some of the warmth she produced, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his chest, she was almost able to believe that they were safe.

Eugenides sighed. "We can't fall asleep yet," he said reluctantly. "We should all try to eat another piece of beef." He made a face. "At least one."

She made a face back at him, secure in the knowledge that he was the only one who could see her. He grinned quickly at her, then reached for the bag of rations where he'd left it just outside the blankets, distributing a piece each to her, himself, and his guard. "In fifteen minutes the water should have warmed up enough that we can drink it without risking ourselves," he said around a yawn. "If you need to leave the blankets, to grab the water or to relieve yourselves, crawl out of the blankets, don't lift them up. I think that's everything."

"Eat your beef," she told him. He stuffed a chunk into his mouth, and chewed obnoxiously. She wanted somehow simultaneously to give him a blow and to embrace him. It was a duality she was used to feeling around her husband, and under the circumstances it felt almost reassuring. She rolled her eyes at him and chewed on her own rations.

They chewed in silence, the three of them, before Eugenides sighed. "If the magus were here, he'd want to know the story of how the cave was made."

"And how was it made?" she asked him.

"You're the Attolians," he said promptly. "You tell me." His guard must have tensed behind him, for he added delightedly, "Costis! Do you mean to say you really do know?"

The guard sighed. "Every cave on this coast," he said finally, "was made by the god of the waters, when he was trying to chase down his daughter who eloped."

There was a silence as they digested this. Eugenides's face was odd, and she wondered if he was thinking, as she was, of the stream in the back of the cave. "You're not very good at telling stories," he complained finally.

"When we get back to the palace," sighed Costis, "I'll write to my sister and have her give me the full story, so you can look at it."

"Such a lot of faith," said her husband. She gripped him about his waist in comfort.

"They'll find us," said the guard, sounding certain. "Tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow night, at worst. We've got a giant fire, enough firewood to last us a season, and food and drink for the next week at least. We'll be fine."

"And if the smugglers find us?" Eugenides prompted. He seemed to Attolia to be not so much dubious as curious, trying to track Costis's certainty to its end.

"They won't return with a gigantic fire, Your Majesty, they're not idiots."

"And if they do?"

"Then I'll fight them off at the entrance. There was a sword back there, I know you saw it. 'Sides, a royal Guard is more trouble than a smuggler's looking for..." he trailed off at the end into a yawn.

"You seem to have it all figured out," said Eugenides eventually.

"I'm your Guard, Your Majesty. 's my job."

"Hmmm." He tapped his fingers on Attolia's thigh. "I'm going to go get the water," he announced. "We can't go to sleep dehydrated, either. Try not to kill each other while I'm gone." Then he slithered down and out towards the vessels before Attolia could react to this, leaving her head to rest on the blankets where his right arm had been.

She missed his heat immediately, though she realized to her surprise that her shivering had partially subsided. Eugenides had been right, she admitted to herself. This was the only way they'd make it through the night. Even with her husband gone, she could feel Costis's heat emanating through the space between them Eugenides's absence had left.

He returned quickly with a water vessel and knelt on top of the blankets in the space he'd left. He, too, was shivering less, realized Attolia, even now that he was back out in the cold. He was much drier, too. He gave the vessel to her first, waiting until she'd drunk her fill. It was unpleasantly lukewarm, but by the time she was done her mouth was no longer dried out from the salt. Then he took the vessel back and turned and considered his guard, lying blindfolded facing them.

"You're going to have to roll onto your back," he told him. "Try not to jostle the blankets too much." Then once he'd done so, "I'm going to put the vessel against your side. Don't startle." He placed it carefully, then took Costis's right hand in his left hand—his only hand—and brought it gently to the vessel. Costis in turn took it carefully up to his lips, and drank it equally carefully, trying not to choke.

"Well done," Eugenides praised, and Costis flushed once more. "You've finished it up, do you need more?" Then when the guard hesitated, he added, "Don't be stoic, Costis. I need you to fight off those smugglers, remember?"

The guard snorted at that, but admitted, "I could use a little more."

"Just what I like to hear," said Eugenides cheerfully. Then he went back down and got another vessel, leaving the first on its side by the fire. He brought it back and repeated the same manouevre; Costis drank a few more gulps before lifting it carefully upright and proffering it to his king.

Eugenides brought his hand up to grasp the vessel. "I've got it," he told Costis, who removed his hands directly away from the vessel with almost exaggerated care, then returned them gently to their earlier position as he turned onto his side again, his right arm curved where Eugenides's head had been, his left arm resting against his side. Attolia gazed up at Eugenides, watching his mouth move as he drank, until he stopped and wiped water from his mouth with his arm. "Best if I put this back," he said to no one in particular. "Don't want to knock water onto our blankets."

He returned the vessel to its original place. With an effort, she tilted her head up to watch him; he was holding it down with the stump of his right arm, and shoveling sand against it with his hand. It wasn't too long before he was finished, but she watched him all the while. When he turned he saw her looking, and gave her an odd smile, half reassuring and half self-conscious.

Then he came back towards them. She moved back a little and lifted the covers as lightly as she could, and he slid in between them once more. She could hear Costis sigh with relief, and was almost tempted to mimic him.

"Your pillow, My Queen," Eugenides murmured, offering her his arm again. She moved herself closer, and, considering him a moment, leaned forward and gave him a quick, closed-mouth kiss. He smiled at her delightedly as she accepted his offer, letting her head rest against his muscled right arm.

"Now we sleep," she said.

"As My Queen commands."

Despite her worries, it was not too long before he began to breathe the slow, deep breaths of a man asleep, and not much longer after that before she followed him out of consciousness.

—

She woke to the sound of her husband's low moan, blinking her eyes open to adjust to the firelight. Eugenides had gone tense against her, twisting in place, and although he hadn't reached the screaming stage yet, he was muttering pleas while he slept.

She wanted to wake him.

She swallowed her own unhappiness and reached over him to wake his guard. "Lieutenant," she said, in a voice low enough not to wake Eugenides. "Costis." She shook him carefully. "Don't move."

It was hard to tell the moment he moved into consciousness without the clue of his eyes, but in a few moments he was shaking his head as though to get rid of bleariness. He turned his head up from Eugenides's shoulder in what, presumably, he thought was her direction, though in fact it was a few degrees over her right shoulder.

"Your Majesty?" he asked in a whisper.

"The king is dreaming. You need to wake him."

She hoped he would not understand—she did not need understanding for this, only obedience. But even with his eyes blocked she could see on his face that he did, and she wondered bitterly how widely this was known. Did everyone in their Guard know that her husband flinched from his wife when she woke him? But she calmed herself. If it had to be anyone other than Teleus, she supposed Costis was an acceptable choice.

"He should see you first, when he wakens," she said. "I will show you where to move your hand."

"Yes, Your Majesty," whispered Costis.

She moved backward gently, careful not to wake her sleeping husband. Then she reached for Costis's left arm, the arm not supporting her husband, and took his wrist with her hand.

"I'm going to move you to where you need to be. Be ready."

"Yes, Your Majesty," said Costis again, and she took his arm and moved it to the spot between her and her husband, slowly so that Costis had the time to adjust his balance. Then they repeated the manoeuver with his leg, so that he was straddling Eugenides. His position lifted the blankets so that air was coming in, and although she was much warmer now than she had been, she suppressed a shiver.

She gently turned her husband's head so that he would be facing Costis above him. “I will go and stoke the fire. Wake him on my command.” She took the wood from the smaller pile not far from the blankets, then circled round to the other side of the fire, making sure she was outside of her husband’s view.

"Now," she called..

"Your Majesty," said Costis loudly. "My King. Wake up." He repeated variations on this for a what seemed like a full minute before he fell silent, and she heard her husband’s voice.

She added some wood to the fire.

"What?" He sounded alarmed, to her practiced ear, but it quickly faded into confusion. "Costis? What are you doing?"

Costis’ voice, in answer, seemed less tense than it had been before his king had woken. "You were having a nightmare."

"Yes," he said, then with more focus, "Yes, a nightmare, where's Irene—" then more desperately “— _Irene_ , where is she—”

“She’s fine!” said Costis. It was almost a shout. “She’s fine, My King, she’s just stoking the fire!”

“I can’t _see her_.”

Attolia knew what Eugenides’ voice sounded like when he was in pain. She quickly returned to his side of the fire, a third of the wood still in her arms. Did he dream she was still the woman who did not know she loved him?

She summoned her mask of implacability to await his flinch, but to her surprise he seemed to relax almost entirely at the sight of her. He gestured her close, and with haste she deposited the wood by its original pile and returned under the blankets, reaching out for him.

At her touch the remaining tension faded entirely, and he closed his eyes for a long moment. "I dreamed I lost you to the waters," he breathed, opening them again, and brought his hand up from under Costis's body to touch her cheek.

Her mask felt entirely necessary and useless all at once. Was she a bad wife, she wondered, for being glad her husband had different nightmares? But she brought her hand up to cup his. "I'm alive," she promised. "You saved me. Costis saved both of us." Eugenides had jumped in after her, when the wave swept her overboard. And then Costis had jumped in after both of them, before the ship could be swept away by the ocean, and gotten them both to shore. She squeezed his hand, and he turned his palm towards hers and squeezed in return.

Costis looked like he was doing his very best to pretend to be a piece of furniture, and she had to smile. "Is there a reward you would like for this, Lieutenant Ormentiedes?"

He looked, even through the blindfold, as though he would much rather she continued to have pretended he wasn't there. "I don't serve for a reward, Your Majesties," he said, obviously uncomfortable.

"Oh?" said Eugenides. His attention was apparently back on Costis, but he had not let go of her hand. "What, not even a break in your Mede lessons?"

"I am glad to serve in whatever capacity I can," said Costis stiffly. Then he sighed and added, "Even as a chew toy, Your Majesty."

Eugenides grinned. "I told you he had a sense of humour," he confided to Attolia. 

"You did." Her own lips were twitching. "I wasn't sure I believed you."

"Would I lie to you?" said Eugenides, miming shock. "My love, you slander me."

"Mmm. Or your lieutenant, apparently."

By this point Costis had flushed a deep red, and she took pity on him. "Help him get down, Eugenides. He deserves a rest."

"Ah,"said her husband, eyes flickering to the blindfold. "I was wondering why he hadn't moved. Can you get our knee over on your own, do you think?" This last was addressed to the guard.

"My knee, yes," agreed Costis immediately.

"That first then, and I'll help you with the arm." She watched as Costis brought his leg back over her husband, shifting awkwardly to make sure he did not put it down on his king, and then Eugenides performed much the same movements that she had earlier but in reverse.

Not for the first time she reflected that things would have been much easier if the man her husband had chosen to provoke into violence had been less like Costis.

"That's better," said Eugenides cheerfully. "I was getting cold." He lined himself up against Costis's chest, then gestured in her direction. "Come here."

She gave him a look, but went to him nonetheless. He caught her in a fierce embrace, his left arm pulling her close, his head tucked in against her shoulder.

"Never leave me," he whispered.

"I will stay with you all the days of my life," she promised him, low-voiced, in return.

This time when they slept, they did not wake until the sun flooded the cave beyond the fire. When the light reached them they dressed and freed Costis from his blindfold, stoked the fire, relieved themselves in turn outside the front of the cave, and took the blankets and went out to wait in the sun’s warmth. There they ate dried beef and drank hot water, watching the ocean for the ships that would take them home.

Costis stood out in front, doing his best to look martial despite being wrapped in a wool blanket. Attolia herself was standing to the right of the cave entrance, with Eugenides sitting carelessly next to her, his head against her thigh.

She was not sure what she was feeling; if she had felt it before, that had been many many years ago. But as her hand rested on her husband's head and she watched Costis watch the water, she thought it might be peace.

**Author's Note:**

> millepertuis: so, when I read your letter, I was delighted by the prompts. Unfortunately, as I thought about it, I kept having a difficult time coming up with something where Costis /and/ Irene /and/ Gen were all interacting together, so in the end I gave up and wrote The Tower, focused on Costis and Eugenides and the loyalty between them, and to a lesser degree their relationships with Attolia.
> 
> Then late in the process I was hit by a bolt from the blue--what if...huddling for warmth...but _all of them_ , and what if it was from _Irene's_ point-of-view--and this is the result. I hope you enjoy it, and have a happy Yuletide!
> 
> I'd really appreciate it if people could not mention details from Thick as Thieves in the comments, thank you! :)


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